It is the sad story of Assam, the land of lush green valleys, beautiful hills and ever flowing sparkling rivers of pure water, inhabited by culturally and ethnically diverse people which represents a small replica of multicultural India. Erstwhile Assam is now bifurcated in to seven states namely Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura. Militancy has ceased in most of the seven sisters and people are engaged in life building arts and works. But the four districts of Assam which were given a special status for administration purpose in 2003 as Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC), under a pact with militant Bodo organisations, is on the boil.
The recent anti-Muslim riots or Bodo-Muslim riots have claimed lives of at least 100 persons and rendered 3-4 lakh persons homeless, in addition to creating enmity in the hearts and minds of two prominent ethnic groups, Bodos and Muslims, each of which forms about one third of BTC’s population. BTC’s total population is around 31 lakh comprising Bodos, Bengali speaking Muslims, Bengali Hindus, Santhals and some other groups.
In the present context this fact should not be lost sight of that during the last decade about 4000 Bodos have been killed in internecine clashes among Bodos themselves. This fact is also important that in 1990s in some of the bloodiest massacres countless Santhals were eliminated by Bodo militants. The recent ethnic cleansing was perpetrated in Kokrajhar and Chirang districts. The number of people rendered homeless in these clashes is, according to Assam government figures, 32,613 families or roughly one and a half lakh persons.
Communal organisations at their mouthpieces falsely propagate that Bengali speaking Muslims in Bodoland are illegal migrants from Bangladesh. The well documented and untenable fact is that the Bengali Muslim migration started from 1800 and continued off and on until the independence in 1947. The Muslims have been there at least from before the dawn of independence. Therefore where is the question of illegal migrants from Bangladesh?
The view that the imaginary illegal Bangladesh migrants are responsible for Assam’s woes is untenable. Those who are propagating this false and erroneous view, whether it is Mr. Advani of a political party or a highly placed constitutional authority HS Brahma, Election Commissioner of India (see his article “How to share Assam?” Indian Express July 28) are not doing any service to this country and are responsible for either willingly or inadvertently stoking fire in Assam.